Spencer Goad - Tech, travel, learning, life...

Ridiculous

2008-09-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

On the left, my pile of books for Tues/Thurs classes. On the right, my
pile for Mon/Wed/Fri. Ridiculous.

Thunderific

2008-09-03T20:55:00.003-07:00

In case you haven't heard... the NBA in OKC announced it's official name today: The Oklahoma City Thunder. The news stations were all in a thunder about it tonight on the 6:00 newscast, covering this thunder for almost as long as typical okie tornado. The worst part? All the "thunder" puns we are getting out of this. I've never heard that many bad jokes in a news cast. We've got Thunderwear, we've got the Thunderdome, Thunder sound effects going into commercial breaks, even Mike Morgan segued into his weather report on a thunder joke. Now don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about having an NBA team in town. I'm a huge sports fan, and I'm really excited to go to games. I'm just starting to hear a new thunder in town... this one created by all the groans in reaction to yet another bad Thunderpun. I'm just wondering who the mascot will be... Thunderman?

Last day of summer...

2008-08-31T20:03:00.002-07:00

Today is my last free day before classes start tomorrow morning. This would be nothing new, except for the fact that my roommate brought up. He said "enjoy tonight, it's the last night of summer for the rest of our lives". Now obviously, we'll have the season of summer in the future... but he is right, we both graduate this year, today is the last day of summer break I'll ever have. Kind of a scary thought, change is definitely in the winds.

Recognition

2008-08-28T22:01:00.003-07:00

The human brain has an amazing ability to recall faces. Even if you can't always place a name with a face, it is usually unmistakeable when a face looks familiar. I've looked the same for years and years, and I've had people who I haven't seen since I was 12 or 13 come up to me and recognize me. Until recently that is... I've made the first major change in years to what I look like, simply by letting my hair grow out. I haven't had a hair cut since May, and I now slick my hair down with gel every morning instead brushing it with a towel. Oddly enough, I've had people that I've known as long as I can remember not recognize me. I was walking down the sidewalk here at school the other day, and a professor here that I've known for years had no clue who I was when I said hi. Granted, I had sunglasses on too, but this has started to become a common occurrence. Amazing how such a simple change can make a person look so different.

Blog posts

2008-08-27T20:51:00.003-07:00

Earlier today I had two blog posts in mind that I wanted to make when I got home tonight. Now, I can't remember what either of the two topics were. So instead of deep thought provoking material, you get this post, a post about the post topics I can't remember. I'll probably remember them as soon as I shut down my computer and get in my bed. But at that point, I'll no longer be in a posting mood, so they probably won't make it up here. Oh well, maybe I'll remember them tomorrow.

Settling

2008-08-24T21:06:00.002-07:00

The past few days I've been moving back to school and trying to get settled in. Today, I'm finally starting to feel like this is my apartment and home for the next school year. Both my roomates are here now, and we went grocery shopping and decorated our living room today. We also cooked our first meal in the apartment tonight - Mexican stack/Mexican pile-up... an excellent way to break in the kitchen. I still felt a little lost because I'm not used to the cabinet layout yet, and it took me several tries to find the cooking utensils I was looking for. But, the meal turned out quite nicely. Still one more week before school starts, so I'll be starting to feel even more settled by that point. Maybe one of these days I won't be relocating every few months. :-)

Restless

2008-08-17T22:43:00.004-07:00

My friend Lara graciously told me I needed to update my blog again, and since I never do what she tells me to do, here is an update. I began my packing for school this afternoon, because I'll be gone most of the day tomorrow playing in a fund raising golf tournament. As the result, I'm now living out of my suitcase here at "home". I'm again in that transition period between two "homes", and I'm a bit restless awaiting my departure. On the one hand, I'm excited to head back to school, on the other hand there are definitely things I miss here in the NW when I'm at school (namely, friends and family). I haven't moved as much as some people in my life, but in the last few years, I haven't spent more than a few months in one spot. Sara Evans' song "Restless" came to mind as I was thinking about this. Here are a few of the lyrics -

"Oh, to hold somebody close that cares
Oh, to finally find some roots somewhere
I know someday I'll find it; it's out there
But until then, I'll just keep movin' and ramblin'

What do you do, where do you go
When nowhere feels like home
I'm restless
Just ramblin'
Oh, I'm restless"

I do have some roots... but in recent years, those have been uprooted quite a bit. I'm a bit mixed up as to where I belong and what location is home. On the one hand these lyrics make me think of someday settling down into a "normal" life, raising a family, etc. But on the other hand, the whole situation makes me a bit restless for heaven. I could be more settled than I currently am here on earth, but in reality, I'll never be home here. "Oh, I'm restless."

Theology and Marriage

2008-08-13T22:54:00.002-07:00

This post is alot more serious in thought than some of my recent ones have been, and I'm not really sure why this topic came to mind. Historically it seems the majority of Christian marriages are made up of two people from the same fellowship/denomination. I've rarely known, for example, some one from the CofC to marry a baptist. Somehow this came to mind and got me thinking, how close would my theology have to match a potential bride's in order for the relationship to be lasting and built on the right principles? Strange thought to ponder, considering I'm not in a relationship (and seem to be a long way from being in one). Obviously there are certain beliefs that I could in no way compromise, they are foundational to my faith. There are, however, some more "border" areas where my thoughts are really based more on tradition within my fellowship than on actual biblical theology. At the same time though, the husband is supposed to be the leader of the family in all matters, especially in spiritual matters. If there is too much disagreement, I don't see how that could work out very well. Of course marriage seems to be all about compromise anyway, so it might work out in some situations. It got me thinking too... I really don't get into deep theological discussions with very many people. Thinking of all the girls I know, even the ones I consider close friends, I can only think of one that I've had that kind of discussion with. Maybe it just is not the most natural topic to bring up in a conversation. Prehaps that is something I need to work on though, because in the long run, nothing matters more.

Fail... or not?

2008-08-12T21:09:00.002-07:00

I've now missed two days in a row on my every day blogging challenge, and so I guess I failed my very own challenge. It gets difficult to find time to post when you leave for the beach before 9 in the morning, and then don't get back till 11:30 at night. I do believe that friends and a beautiful beach come before blogging in my priorities though, so I feel good about my "failure". Besides, I accomplished what I really wanted to accomplish with my challenge. I now think about blogging just about everyday, even if I don't have something to post in a particular day. That was my real goal, not necessarily a post every day. Hopefully I'll keep this up, avoid boring any of my three readers, and have a nice little record of what is on my mind throughout this school year.

Air Conditioned Seats

2008-08-09T22:50:00.005-07:00

I now present to you the most useless gadget I've seen in a while (or at least it is one I'm not shelling out any money for). From Kuchofuku, it is the air-conditioned cushion for your office chair -

Wonder who is getting paid big bucks for this one? From their web-site: "The built-in fan pushes over 170 liters of air per minute through the cushion, dissipating the heat and moisture around your buttocks that causes discomfort and sweating." Who wouldn't want one with that kind of marketing pitch?

08.08.08

2008-08-08T23:42:00.005-07:00

As this historic day comes to a close, I realize I did not do all I should have done to optimize my luck for the next 1000 years. I should have sung 8 eighth notes 8 times on the eights of every hour. I should have driven 8 miles at 88 mph. I should have eaten 8 fried Oreos at the fair, costing me exactly 8 dollars. I should have brushed my teeth 8 times in 8 second spurts. I should have yelled "Eight that!" to the cars I passed on the highway. I should have renewed my driver's license today so that 08.08.08 would always be in my pocket. I should have eaten 8 meals in my day, all starting on the eights of course. I should have spent 8 seconds every 8 minutes to contemplate why 8 is such a lucky number. I should have thought of 8 of my favorite things (in pairs of 8), ensuring I will have them near me till I die. I should have concentrated very hard on the equation 8x8x8... then I would have lived that long (that's 512 years for the mathematically challenged). I should have listened to 8 of my favorite songs for 8 minutes each while doing an 8-step dance. I should have parked in the 8th row of the fair parking lot. I should have woken up and gone to bed at 8:08. I should have gone to the skating rink and done 8 figure 8s on the ice. And lastly, I really should have only come up with 8 of these things that I should have done. I'm afraid my luck meter is really running on low right now. Good thing I'm not superstitious. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do my nightly ritual to rid my bedroom of any bad karma.

(This blog post was brought to you by the number... 8, and the letter... "I".)

Fair Food

2008-08-07T22:26:00.002-07:00

You know, first time at the fair in a given year, all the good looks great. It all makes you hungry and you want to try everything. Then, if you have to hang around the fair alot, the food slowly becomes less appetizing. I realize now that the block of grease (other wise known as a brick of curly fries) I had for lunch might not have been the best choice of the day. Still, it tasted good at the time. :-) I still want to try a deep fried Oreo though, maybe tomorrow night.

iPhone App Store

2008-08-06T23:15:00.003-07:00

Heard the latest news about the iPhone app store? Apparently this application called "I Am Rich" made it through Apple's great filtering system. The app costs $999 and is just a picture of a ruby on the screen. This while many legitimate applications and developers sit waiting for Apple to approve their works so they can distribute their apps. I was not a fan of the app store idea to begin with, and Apple is not doing anything so far to prove me wrong. The system is basically allowing Apple to limit what a developer can or can't release for the platform. Now, if it was being implemented well, I might not care as much. The implementation right now though is absolutely terrible. Applications have been caught in limbo, some apps have gone up and down out of the store while developers sit with no explanation, and then a stupid application like this gets added. Apparently "I Am Rich" is now removed from the US store, but the principle still holds true. In my opinion the iPhone is an extremely powerful platform that developers should be able to leverage in whatever way they can or want (it is basically a Mac computer, just smaller!). If we had the app store as simply a marketing option, that is one thing. As it is though, I'm not a fan. Come on Apple, get with the program, call me if you want suggestions. :-)

Civ IV

2008-08-05T23:55:00.002-07:00

Civ IV is a fun game... I haven't had time to play games in a long time, so it was fun to pull this one out today. I've probably played it a bit too much in one day, though I guess maybe I'm just making up for lost time. :-)

Good Days

2008-08-04T23:33:00.006-07:00

Do you ever just have one of those amazingly good days where you wonder how any day could get better than that one? I had one of those days today, it was simply amazing. First off, with my summer class finished, I really didn't have much of a care in the world anyway today, it was my first real day of summer break. Then my Dad and I went and played golf this morning. I didn't play real well, but the day was perfect for it. Today's weather was clear blue skies with a high right around 91, perfect summer weather in my book (none of this stupid gray and rainy business we've had recently). Then tonight my sister and I went to the fair again with a great group of friends. We had alot of fun hanging out there, enjoying the fair atmosphere. Then, the reason we went to the fair on this particular night was a concert by stellar country music artist Clay Walker. He has had 11 number one hits, and sold millions of albums. He is one of my absolute favorite country singers, and his music is what I call my feel good music. If I'm feeling a bit down, I turn on Clay Walker and it almost always cheers me up a bit. His music just has a happy and peppy feel to it, and it just makes you feel good. He is a very talented singer, and has a pretty amazing vocal range. So, pile live feel good music on top of a good day and things are even better. Then after the concert, as the icing (or powered sugar in this case) on the cake, I had one of my favorite foods in the world, funnel cake. Yes, my friends, it was a good day. Hope yours was good as well!

Video: Clay Walker sings "Rumor Has It"

A classic "mature" picture:

Done

2008-08-03T21:03:00.004-07:00

No, I'm not done with summer yet, still have a bit of time left in that. But, I did finish my technical writing summer class this evening, turning in my last assignment about an hour ago. I'm glad to be done with it so I can move on to a couple summer projects before I head back to school in a couple weeks. This just leaves me with two 18 hour semesters and two challenge tests between me and graduation. It is exciting, but fairly scary at the same time. I think I'm finally starting to get some post-grad plans nailed down, so I'll probably share more about that at a later date. For now, I mostly just want to focus on my last two semesters and enjoying my last year at OC. On the one hand, it is nice to be close to done with school. On the other hand, I enjoy my time at school greatly, and school has basically become my life over the last 3 years. As the result, May will bring some pretty major changes for me. I'm excited about them, but sad about the thought of leaving OC behind. Hopefully everything will fall into place this year and I'll have a pretty smooth couple of semesters. We will see!

20,000

2008-08-02T23:38:00.004-07:00

No, that is not the odometer reading on somebody's car, nor am I going to write something about Jules Verne. Instead, that is the picture count I passed this morning on my camera. I've had my Canon 20D since Dec. 2004, so just under 4 years. I obviously use it quite a bit at times, but on other occasions it has set for weeks at a time without any use. Still, 4 years, over 20,000 pictures, I think I've gotten some good use out of it. It is a bit dusty right now from spending the last two days at equestrian events, but it still shoots like a pro. Now if I was always able to shoot like a pro, I'd be in good shape. :-) In honor of number 20,000, here are a few pictures from the last couple days -

Here my sister takes on a barrel at the Vancouver saddle club.

This, my friends, is the ultra popular among pre-teens, star of the High School Musical phenomenon, and all around up-and-coming Disney prodigy, Corbin Bleu. That's right, I saw him in person, be jealous. He was playing the grandstand at the fair last night, so I walked over, took a picture, then walked back out. He did sound pretty good, I just had to get back to the riding arena.

Of course, no fair is complete without the "Giant Wheel".

iPhone test post

2008-08-01T19:49:00.001-07:00

I setup my blog this afternoon to accept posts from my iPhone, so I thought I would take this chance to try it out. I'm at the Clark County Fair right now for a western gaming night my sister is competing in. I spotted this orange tractor as we came in the gate, thought it was pretty cool, and worthy of accompanying this test post.

Pushups

2008-07-31T23:49:00.005-07:00

I would be the first to admit that while I'm not in terrible physical shape, I'm not in the greatest shape of my life either. Lets face it, sitting at a computer writing or coding all day isn't exactly a big workout. So in addition to my challenge I started yesterday to blog everyday, I started a challenge a couple weeks ago to try increase my core strength and get in a bit better shape. It started when I came across the web-site hundredpushups.com via the LifeHacker blog (a cool blog with good tech and general organization and life tips). The hundred pushups website is home to a plan to take you from wherever you are physically to being able to do 100 consecutive pushups in 6 weeks time. Like I said, I started two weeks ago, but I decided to push myself a little harder than the plan calls for. As the result, I just finished week 3 of the plan. It is getting pretty tough and tiring, but I can already tell a significant improvement in my strength and stamina. When I started I could barely do over 15 pushups consecutively (pretty sad results, actually). Last week I tested myself again and did over 45 in a row before tiring out (I now average at least 150 push ups a day, closing on 200). My goal now is to get up to 70 consecutive by the time I leave for school (19 days), and then 100 by the time school starts (Sept. 1st). We will see if that happens, as the workouts have gotten increasingly tough. My results so far have got me optimistic, however, so I think my chances are pretty good. If you aren't already doing some sort of physical workout in your day, I'd recommend consider at least doing some pushups. It can be tiring, but it is easy to do and it helps your whole body strength and stamina.

Bad voice day?

2008-07-30T21:46:00.003-07:00

Any singers every just had a weirdly bad day with your voice? This morning I was in a somewhat stressed mood, and when I'm stressed, I like to sing. So, with no one in the house, I broke out my recording equipment and started working on a song called "Beautiful Lamb". It is a really pretty song, but my voice was definitely not pretty today. I don't know what the deal was, my throat wasn't sore or anything. My voice felt fine, but it didn't sound fine. My range was shortened by a full 3 notes on top, and by several on the lower end. As the result, some of the middle harmonies and things sound alright on my recording, but the lead stuff is not pretty at all. Hopefully whatever the problem is it will clear up soon. I'll probably just go back and re-record the whole song, which is much easier now that I've already learned all the parts. Despite being a rough day for my voice, the singing still lifted my mood considerably, so I guess it served its purpose.

What is the best way to use a blog?

2008-07-30T21:29:00.003-07:00

I've been wanting to get back into blogging on a regular basis, and so I've been considering the question you see here in my post title. I'm not 100% what those of you who read this (there are not many of you, I'm sure) really would care about reading. On one hand I might have somebody who subscribes to my blog just to read when I talk about technology. On the other hand, I know some of my technical posts can go right over some of my friends heads (if it doesn't get stuck in their blonde hair). So, they would be more interested in the random happenings of my life. There also might be those who read this looking for some deep philosophical wisdom. Why they would turn to my blog for that, I'm not sure... but you never know.

I've just about decided that a personal blog is just a little peak into the life of its writer. My life is made up of parts of all those things I just mentioned, so I've come to the conclusion that a wide variety of posts here is not a problem at all. If this was a technical blog or something, it would be a different story. However, this is my personal blog, a little inlet to my life... so random thoughts is most likely what you will get. As the result, I'm resolving to make at least one blog post a day between now and the time I head back to school (20 days from now). I'm hoping to get into a habit that will carry me into the school year, though I'm not certain how that will work out. My main reasoning is actually not for any of you readers, it is mostly for me. I'm terrible when it comes to keeping a personal journal, so I'm hoping this blog will sort of serve as that for me through senior year. Don't worry, I won't be writing any "dear diary" posts anytime soon, I don't like that kind of thing (part of my problem with journaling). Instead, I want a record of what is interesting to me or on my mind that day. This should be an interesting experiment for me, and I hope it will also be slightly interesting for you.

Warning Labels

2008-07-15T15:52:00.003-07:00

I just love great warning labels, especially those that were obviously intended for stupid people. Take, for example, this warning on an office door: http://twitpic.com/47uc. A friend of mine posted a link to that on Twitter this afternoon. I also saw one myself the other day on a bag of roasted and lightly sea salted peanuts. The label's message was clear: "Warning! May contain nuts." I have to tell you, that warning completely ruined my day. I was all geared up and excited about my peanuts without the nuts. Granted, I guess technically a peanut really isn't a nut. It is actually a legume. So, if the bag did contain nuts, I wasn't eating what I paid for. That would of course be a complete bummer, as absolutely no one wants to eat nuts when they paid for legumes. It does of course beg the question, why do we call these particular legumes peanuts? The pea part makes sense, because a pea is a legume. But what nut decided to put nut in the name of peanuts? Of course, some people in the south still call peanuts by the old name goober peas. That makes more technical sense, but I still think it is a nutty name, and it makes me wonder what kind of goober came up with it. In any case, after being warned that a nut might have found its way into my bag of goobers the other day, I do believe I am now scarred for life.

Powerful storms strike... where again?

2008-05-25T22:09:00.002-07:00

I just came across this on ABCNews.com -

Tornadoes hit Iowa and Minnesota, and so naturally we illustrate it with a News 9 shot of a Tornado yesterday in Hennessey, OK. I'm no journalism expert, but I'm pretty sure this one won't be winning any press awards anytime soon. :-)

Philosophy

2008-05-20T16:03:00.002-07:00

I always enjoy a good discussion of philosophy, so while visiting Barnes & Noble today I decided to pursue what books they might have on the topic. Below is a picture of what I found -
Being from Oklahoma, I debated purchasing the one on the right, but instead decided to save my money.

Portland - Weirdest city in the US?

2008-05-19T21:21:00.001-07:00

That title right there is the page title of an AP article that appeared on ABCNews.com today, in the Travel section. Portland has gotten high marks from lifestyle magazines as a great place to live and visit, which I highly agree with, I love it up here. The main point of the article, however, is the weirdness of this town, and how proud we seem to be of it (I say we indicating I live here, not that I'm proud of the weirdness). I must say, it is rather unique went the latest town art project is placing 23 foot tall acupuncture needles around town to help the city's "chi". That uniqueness, though somewhat weird, is indeed the least of it. You'll have to read the article to find out more about the city's weirdness. It definitely says something though, when the most popular bumper sticker in town carries the slogan (no joke) "Keep Portland Weird". Weird and proud of it, Portland, Oregon, USA. Give me call if you want to visit, I'll give you a full tour (including, of course, Voodoo Doughnuts).

See article here - http://tinyurl.com/5ktjm9.